La reina Jerifa mora 3

Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5773/27
Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Marruecos pg. 115, Editorial Alpuerto, Pardes Publishing House, 2018 Susana Weich-Shahak.

This is a partial version of the North Moroccan version of a Romansa centered on themes of captivity and identity during the era of the Spanish Christian - Moorish wars. The story, preserved in the oral traditions of Spain, explores the emotional recognition between two long-lost sisters. One, now a queen and once a Christian captive herself, asks for a Christian slave to be brought to her. The Moors who she sends to do this for her, kill the Count Flores who was the husband of her slave to be. Both women are pregnant and give birth on the same day, the queen to a daughter and the slave to a son. The midwives secretly exchange the newborns, giving the son to the queen. Later, the queen overhears the slave singing a lullaby to her daughter, expressing that if the child were hers, she would name her after her lost sister - the very name of the queen. This moment of recognition leads to a heartfelt reunion, and the sisters embrace and restore the babies to their rightful mothers and depart to their homeland the next day.

Text:
La reina Jerifa mora,  la que mora en la Almería,
dice que tiene deseos   de una cristiana cautiva.
Los moros, como lo oyeran,   de seguida se partíeron,
Los unos para la Francia,  los otros para Inglaterra
En busca de una cristiana  Encuentran con el conde Flores, 
que a la condesa traía,  Rosa blanca en la su mano  

Translation:
La reina Jerifa, a Moorish queen, the one who dwells in Almería,
says that she has the desire for a captive Christian woman.
The Moors, when they heard it, at once they departed,
Some toward France, the others toward England,
Searching for a Christian woman. They encounter Count Flores,
who was bringing the countess, White rose in his hand.